The ability of organosilanes to transfer hydride selectively to a variety of carbocations is known, and has been utilized in the development of numerous synthetic techniques, e.g., the direct conversion of alcohols to hydrocarbons, which occurs when intermediate carbenium ions formed by reaction between alcohols and protic acids are captured by organosilanes. These known reactions are discussed in a paper* jointly authored by Merwyn G. Adlington, Michael Orfanopoulos and James L. Fry, and in the reference cited therein. The paper also describes briefly some of the experiments which constitute the genesis of the present invention. FNT * Tetrahedron Letters No. 34, pp. 2955-2958, 1976.